Advances in communications technology continually expand and refine available options for communicating with one another. Key examples come to mind, such as the proliferation of wireless communications devices, audio and video conferencing systems, network and Internet data sharing systems, and electronic collaborative work applications. Ironically, exploiting new communications and information technology becomes increasingly complicated as the range and sophistication of the underlying technologies increases.
Workers in a typical company communicate with one another in a variety of ways. For example, a single person may be associated with a desk phone, a cellular phone, a pager, a personal digital assistant, a computer system, multiple email accounts, and a myriad of other points of contact. The preferred means of contacting such a person will likely vary with changing circumstances-such as time of day or travel status. The efficiency of co-workers attempting to contact this person may be compromised by the sheer number of contact choices available, the number of systems involved (e.g., phone, email, paging), and by not knowing which choice is appropriate at any given time.
Other barriers to efficient and effective communications stem from the increasing complexity of the information involved in our communications. Workers are involved in the development of increasingly complex systems that are oftentimes developed using geographically disperse, multi-disciplinary teams. The ability of these teams to interact with one another and share information intuitively and effectively is critical for success. Further, consumers buy and use increasingly sophisticated systems and services, yet their ability to realize the full value of such systems and services depends on a vendor's ability to supply them with appropriate, readily understood assistance and supporting information.
Unfortunately, existing communication solutions remain loosely integrated at best and do not offer users with an intuitive way to interact with and use any and all of the communications technologies available in a given situation. Accordingly, there remains a need for a system that combines or has access to disparate communications technologies and provides an intuitive interface, preferably visual, that allows people to intuitively interact with other persons and with supporting information and communications systems.